London — World stock markets took a well-earned breather on Tuesday after the second major coronavirus vaccine boost in the space of a week had propelled them higher again and put Europe on course for its best month in nearly three decades.
The latest boost comes from Moderna, which said on Monday that its experimental Covid-19 vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing infection based on interim late-stage data. The US-based firm became the second drugmaker, after Pfizer, to announce promising data. Its shares gained 9.6% on the day. “The market is assuming that we can see the end of the tunnel, that in 2022 a large part of the world’s population will start to receive access to vaccines,” said Herald van der Linde, HSBC’s head of equity strategy for Asia Pacific.Oil on the boil
The vaccine news also helped the risk-friendly Australian dollar, which climbed to a one-week high against its US counterpart. Rising virus case numbers in the US clouded views on the dollar, which dropped against a basket of major currencies.